To set the stage on this post, it requires a confession.  One of my favorite guilty pleasures as a kid was those cheap premade chicken pot pies you’d find in the freezer section.  To be completely honest, the frozen food section has never tempted me – as an adult or a child.  With of course the exception of ice cream.  While the freezer often held Costco frozen food items during our teen years, my mom was always cooking meals.  We didn’t rely on this stuff for dinners, so I never really grew to like it.

Chicken pot pie recipes (whether tried at home or ordered on restaurant menus) were mostly a disappointment.  A creamy bowl of chicken soup with a square of puff pastry should never be called a chicken pot pie.  A proper chicken pot pie is a savory pie.  Think of a delicious apple pie turned savory.  You don’t throw a little puff pastry atop a bowl of sugared apples and call it a pie.  A proper pie requires a bottom pie crust and a top pie crust.  The crust ingredients should be simple – flour, water, and lots of butter.  The filling of a chicken pot pie can be brothy or creamy, but it does need to be thick so that it can be served without running across your entire plate.

I haven’t attempted many chicken pot pie recipes, primarily just because a proper pie recipe is few and far between.  Cold weather and our decision to eliminate sugar were the motivators to go searching.  It you can’t have a sweet pie, you may as well have a savory one!

I didn’t expect much of this recipe, mostly because we had adapted it to be gluten free, but it was a hit and one we’ll keep to put on repeat during the colder months of the year.  The crust was delicious, the filling was easy to make, flavorful and held up as pie filling.  It was the perfect Sunday dinner to prepare for the week ahead.

Yield: 1 Pie

Savory Chicken Pot Pie (Gluten-free adaptable)

If your idea of good chicken pot pie revolves around a true double-crust pie complete with a savory filling that's thick enough to hold up to slicing, this is it!

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Ingredients

Crust

• 3 cups all purpose flour (for gluten free, see note)
• 1/2 TSP salt
• 1 cup butter, chilled and cut into small cubes
• 8-10 TBSP milk, chilled

Filling

• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 cup carrots, peeled and diced
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/3 cup all purpose flour (for gluten free, see note)
• 1/2 TSP salt
• 1/4 TSP freshly ground black pepper
• 1 3/4 cup chicken broth
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1 cup peas, frozen or fresh
• 1 LB chicken breast, cooked and cubed

Instructions

First, make the pie crust by combining flour and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Cut in the butter with your fingers or a pastry blender until the butter is the size of small peas. Slowly add milk until the dough just starts to come together. Divide the dough into two pieces and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 425F. If you're using gluten free flour, it's a bit more challenging to roll out the crusts without cracking into lots of pieces. I found that rolling each crust between two sheets of parchment paper. Once the dough is rolled out to size, fit and trim the bottom crust in the pie pan and return to refrigerator.

Next, start the filling by sauteing onions and carrots with the butter. Once they're tender but still firm, add the flour, salt and pepper. Stir to combine and toast the flour until slightly golden. Next add the chicken broth and stir to combine. Next add the milk, peas, and cooked chicken. Simmer the filling until thick and remove from the heat.

Add the filling to the pie pan atop the pie crust and then fit the top crust over the filling, sealing the top and bottom crusts and crimping the edge. Cut slits in the top crust to allow steam to escape.

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Cool for 15 minutes before serving.

Notes

Inspired By: Gluten Free Palate

Gluten Free Flour Option: I used King Arthur's Gluten Free Measure for Measure Flour and was happy with the result.